Author's Note: Hey guys, long time no see! I'm really excited to give you this chapter so I'll let you know why there have been distinctly lacking updates at the end - without further ado, here is chapter nine!

WE ARE YOURS
Chapter Nine
BLOODLINES

"Oh, I remember when this road was my own."

"Elena, we need to go home." He blinked blood out of his eyes. Scarlet ran down every inch of his face, dripping and pooling at his feet. "We can do this when we get home."

THREE HOURS EARLIER

Dazed and vacant, Elena stared down at her black boots. In places, they were stained a deep, rusted brown colour by droplets of her own blood. The crimson haze of burst vessels and capillaries in her eyes and face had only just begun to fade from her vision. Body trembling from both fear and exhaustion, Elena slumped against the wall of her cell, glaring at the man in the corridor beyond the bars.

Bathed by candlelight, Elena watched, silent aside from her racking, shoulder shaking breaths. Though she could not understand it, there was something hauntingly familiar about the man's appearance. Like his voice, his face was European looking. His eyes were a deep brown, so dark they were like shadows in their sockets. Somehow, Elena thought he looked ancient yet young at the same time, ageless in a way that made her think he was older than the concept of time itself.

In a tongue that Elena didn't understand, he chanted words that were both meaningless to her yet evoked inexplicable fear in her gut. In a detatched part of her brain that was still able to operate, Elena couldn't help but feel like it was language she had heard more than once before.

"Thank you for the kind donation of your blood, Elena." He said pleasantly as he got to his feet. Dusting the grit and grime for the corridor floor from his trousers, the black eyed man moved closer to the bars. Hating herself for feeling so helpless, Elena could only cringe away from him in an effort to protect herself. "Tell me, how is Damon Salvatore?"

"Painfully dashing, yet as hopelessly arrogant as always," confused and disorientated by a sudden burst of light, Elena blinked rapidly trying to hone her vision on the newcomer. It was a female. Slender framed with a mass of brown hair that hung in artfully styled curls, Elena found herself leaning closer to the bars in spite of herself. The woman was striding down the corridor on long legs, extended by sharp and pointed heeled shoes that clicked offensively loudly in the dreary space.

"Oh, look!" The woman exclaimed perkily, her voice ringing through Elena's skull. As quickly as it had lifted, the woman's tone lowered to a mocking sneer. "It's the charity shop version of me."

Bewildered by the comment, Elena forced herself to focus on the face swimming in front of her on the other side of the bars. With a startled yelp, Elena scooted back from the bars.

The owner of the snide, bitchy toned voice was... impossibly, her. Overcome with confusion, Elena the odd urge to laugh bubbled through her body. Though she was cramped in a cell, covered in her own blood and drained, it didn't stop her from seeing the hilarity in her dire predicament. The man had ripped open her face in order to take blood from her to do some kind of spell, and now she was staring into her own face, on her own body, but somehow, it was occupied by another being.

"I can practically hear your thoughts rattling around your bobble head," the woman sighed, folding her arms across her chest. "And don't flatter yourself. We may look alike, but I can assure you I am more glamorous, prettier and way more interesting than you'll ever be."

"Now, Katherine. Claws away." The man stepped in, a sly smile tugging one side of his mouth upwards.

"Markos, I'm bored. And I had to tramp through the woods in two hundred dollar shoes because you wouldn't answer your cell." The doppelganger, Katherine, turned away from Elena and cocked her head to one side. "Mr Saltzman got a call from our least favourite vampire, so they're probably on their way now... and I see you've given them a gentle nudge in the right direction."

Markos nodded, the smile vanishing. "Keep our guest company. I am going to organise the welcome home commitee."

-/-

"Have you not learned anything in the years that I've known you?!" Furiously, Alaric lunged for Damon. Grabbing the vampire by the throat, he threw him against the side of the faded blue Camaro. Damon twisted out of his grip, hands raised. It was clear from the shadow that crossed his sky blue eyes that was he was pissed, but he made no move to hit Alaric back.

Alaric was infuriated, and frankly, sickened by Damon's lack of tact. Yes, his favourite lackey had been whipped away from right beneath his nose, yes, it was by a group of people who had become their sworn enemies and with which they had a personal vendetta, but that was even more of a reason for Damon to proceed with care. Instead, Damon had been ready thrown caution to the window and was ready to roll across the border into Mystic Falls like hell on wheels.

"We barely survived last time we came into contact with the Travellers, don't be an idiot!" Satisfied that Damon was finally paying attention and listening to him, Alaric stepped out of Damon's personal space. "They took Elena. Why?"

"I don't know, Alaric!" Damon snapped loudly. "They said something about her being from Mystic Falls, and then they took her-"

"Elena was from Mystic Falls?" Alaric cut in, his eyes narrowing in disbelief. Shaking his head slowly, he met the vampire's blue gaze, no longer icy but fiery with frustration. "Did you know that?"

"I - no, no I didn't." Alaric saw his own confusion mirrored in Damon's expression. Alaric had only been in Mystic Falls for a short spell before he'd outstayed his welcome, but even then, he knew of the most relevant people in town. He had been thrown in at the deep end, had to learn fast who the Traveller's operations centered around. Damon on the otherhand had spent longer than a lifetime in Mystic Falls. It had been his home town, his personal hunting grounds. Purely thanks to his age, Damon had known everyone there was to know in the tired old town.

"Why would the Travellers want Elena?"

"Probably to piss me off!" Damon growled, his face contorting into a savage expression of rage. "It's working."

Damon wrenched the car door open and climbed in behind the steering wheel. Hastily, Alaric followed suit, dropping down heavily in the passengers suit. "If that was the reason, then there are other questions we need to ask."

"I don't think we need to ask questions," Damon twisted the key in the ignition with unnecessary force, words coming fast and clipped through gritted teeth. "We just need to kill them."

Damon slammed his foot on the accelerator, his usual care of the fateful old car forgotten in his rage. They sped away from the Rest Spot, onto the open road in the direction of Mystic Falls. Bitterly, Alaric stared out of the window, his eyes trying hopelessly to keep up with the blurring countryside. How was it that even after all this time, it was still Mystic Falls that seemed to create and attract disasters? How was it that no matter what he did to try and forget the abysmall town, something always happened to remind him what had happened there?

It's Damon, Alaric thought furiously. He threw vicious gaze at his vampire friend. It's his carnal obsession with having his home back. I'm trapped because of him.

"I can see you, Ric. Stop blaming me for everything just because you think I'm a reckless and an-" Damon's sentence was lost to a series of hacking coughs. As he convulsed in pain, Alaric watched Damon's hands lose their grip on the steering wheel. The world moved in slow motion. His heart plummetting, Alaric lunged across to the drivers seat, fingers clenching around the spinning wheel. Everything blurred around him. The tyres screamed in protest as the car span wildly out of control, hurtling off of the road like a bullet. It screeched to a halt.

His heart smashing painfully against his ribs, Alaric held onto the sides of the passenger seat, eyes fixated on a single spot - a spec of red on the vintage dashboard. He waited for his orientation to return, for his heart rate to slow before he turned his accusing gaze on Damon. "You did that on purpose."

"I would not risk my car on purpose, to prove any point, or for any person." Damon snarled, his voice thick with... blood. It was everywhere, coated on Alaric's sleeves, all over the steering wheel. It had painted the windscreen scarlet. It was smeared across Damon's face, running down his chin in a thick steady flow.

"I think I believe you." Alaric murmured, dumb founded. "What the hell happened?"

"Travellers," Damon muttered, slumping forwards, his forehead colliding on the steering wheel with a resounding thud. "I saw her, Ric. She was in my basement."

-/-

"You really are fascinating up close," Elena jerked her head away from Katherine's outstretched fingertips and immediately regretted the motion. Dizzied by the suddeness of her own actions, Elena's hands flailed to grab the metal gurney. Upon Markos' departure, Katherine had released Elena from herself and dragged her ruthlessly into a clinically white room. Metallic surfaces and gurneys, sterile smelling medical instruments and knives that made Elena want to gag surrounded them.

"You don't like the way it smells, do you?" Katherine asked, her voice dropping an octave so it sounded almost sympathetic. Elena stared at the girl through thick locks of hair, congealed with her own blood. "Disinfectant. It burns the insides of your nose. It always has."

"How can you know that? Are we exactly alike?" The question burst from Elena before she could suppress it. Her own curiousity had already brought her a world of pain, but she couldn't handle a lack of understanding. She had to know. She had to understand.

"Oh god, of course we're not." Katherine flipped her curled hair over her shoulder. "If we were exactly alike, you wouldn't be such a boring dreg of a person. We're just built the same."

"How?"

"Call it a genetic trait," Katherine gave Elena a slow and wicked smile. "We're related."

"How is that possible? How could I be related to someone that looks identical to me and not know?! Are we-"

"We are most definitely not sisters," Katherine cut in sharply, a perfectly plucked eyebrow arching with disdain. "If I had a twin sister, I probably would have smothered her at birth. I don't share well. No, little Elena, I'm several hundred years your senior. You just happen to be unfortunate enough to be related to me, which means you inherited the blip that is the doppelganger gene. I don't know the ins and outs of it and to be honest, I don't really care. All I know is that I found myself in the middle of some kind of supernatural war."

Elena stared hard at Katherine. A silence lapsed, but Katherine's gaze did not waver. Any hint of mischief and taunting had siphoned from her expression leaving her looking both unnaturally hard and blank. The mocking curve of her lips had gone; they had formed a thin, tight line. An almost gaunt look hung over her like a shadow, a look that told of a testing and tumultous life. "Let me give you a family history lesson."

In a gesture that was surprisingly friendly in one who painted herself to be so stoic, Katherine indicated for Elena to take a sit in a swivel chair. Elena moved slowly. Though it seemed they were having a civilised conversation (despite the digs and jibes on Katherine's behalf) Elena knew that she couldn't place in faith in Katherine. One wrong move, and could easily end up with her body on one side of the room, and her bloodied heart in Katherine's fist.

"The Petrova women, known in this wonderful modern era as the 'Pierce' family have a reputation for being... How can I put this? Loose. Apparently, this was by no mistake, as young and naive eighteen year old me discovered. I was born in Bulgaria in the 1400's, but was shunned and disowned by my father because I gave birth to a child... a baby girl, out of wedlock. It was unthinkable for that to happen. It didn't matter that my father was a nobleman. He had a reputation to uphold. Thus, I found myself homeless and lost, wandering around the countryside.

"Rescue came in the form of man dark haired man. I was frantic with worry, having just given birth to a child and then suddenly found myself ready to blundering around the countryside in the dark without direction. I was ready to accept any aid just about then, so it was gratefully and willingly that I followed him back to his house, a handsome manner on top of a hill. It was set apart, quiet isolated from anywhere else. I felt safe with him... more fool me.

"I dined with him. I told him about my baby. About my papa. He was kind to me. He gave me a room, had his ladies bathe me. I was clothed and fed. I was treated like royalty. I was young. I was naive. But, as always in typical Katerina fashion, I was brilliant and calculating at the same time. I built a network of connections. I began to grow suspicious of the kind treatment - it wasn't the done thing to do, you see. You didn't just take in a pretty young woman from the night and ask for nothing of her. A young man called Filipe who had been vying for my affections came to me with news: Markos, my rescuer and saviour, wanted to reap my blood because I was the doppelganger of the generation.

"The way that Felipe delivered those words..." Katherine broke off, her eyes darkening with the memory as if it recalled a resounding fear that she had lost touch with long ago. "I believed him completely. I feared for my life, and as a survivor, I would do anything to keep it. Felipe told me there was someone in the village... a monster wearing the skin of a beautiful human. Apparently, he could help me become stronger. Fitter. Faster... I would become more. I was apprehensive, but I went anyway."

"He was a vampire?" Elena interjected, eyes widening with recognition and intrigue. She felt her cheeks flush as she acknowledged the way in which the man was presented to Katherine - as someone to be held in high regard, as if vampirism was some kind of gift that should be sought out. In Elena's eyes, vampirism was a curse. Becoming a vampire had been an lonely, isolating experience. One minute, she had been Elena, plain and simple with her inexplicable attraction to blue eyes, hatred of hospitals and dream to be an author. The next thing she knew, she was waking up face down in an alleyway, her entire alight with tension and a lack of self-control. Unthinkingly, she had grabbed for the blood bag without even considering what it was. All she knew was that it had smelt so horrifically wrong, but so deliciously right. She had guzzled it down, greed and lust commandeering her body.

It was only after that Elena was forced to deal with the consequences of her actions and was left all alone in the world to discover what had become of herself.

"Correct. He was a vampire, and he was willing to turn me for a price. I accepted without worrying about the consequences - I already had a plan. So I let him turn me, then when I woke, I ate his house maid and then ripped his heart out. Simple, easy, efficient. I didn't have a debt to pay." Katherine exhaled heavily, her facing closing up with rage. "Felipe on the otherhand, was a double crossing rat. Markos had seen our sudden closeness and questioned him. Felipe gave everything up, instantly. So I found myself pursued for the next fifty years by Markos. I did all I could to learn about him. I found out from witches that he was a Traveller, looking for a way to settle back on his homeland. As a human doppelganger, my blood would have granted him access to that kind of power.

"I had foiled that plan when I turned. Something about vampirism makes the blood less potent in magic... but had there been two of us? Now that's a different story. Here comes the plot twist. I was tired of running. I hadn't really envisioned myself becoming enhanced and strenghtened by vampirism in order to run and be fearful for the rest of my eternal life. Instead, I stopped. I let Markos come to me. Here, I could knock two birds down with one stone.

"If there's anything that I'm good at, it's making deals and gathering information. And fashion. Despite being tossed aside by my father, I still had a desire to know my daughter, who was ripped from my arms still bearing my maternal blood. I made a deal Markos couldn't refuse. I'd silently trace my family through the generations. I'd provide him with information on their whereabouts, when new children were born and of course, if there were another doppelganger. I only asked for one thing in return. My life."

Revulsion coursed through Elena. Katherine had practically traded in her entire family's lives for her own. A cold smile blazed across Katherine's feline features. "Rather they than I, Elena. I look out for myself. Nobody else."

"How can you live like that?" Elena whispered, repulsed and horrified by Katherine's unfeeling admission. Her head span as she tried to remain calm and grasp onto what little semblance of rationality remained in her brain.

"I live like that because I must. Because if I want to survive, I don't have a choice." Katherine straightened her shoulders, brown eyes capturing Elena's gaze. "You have barely lived for three seconds. You have so much to learn. You can't deal with the world in absolutes, Elena. It can't be that black and white. It isn't that black and white. We aren't just heroes and villains, good and evil. There are only people and flaws. You'd do well to remember that."

Katherine got to her feet and stretched. Her bones clicked, grating over one another. "Now I advise you stop interrupting me. Don't you wanna hear the rest of the story?"

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

A/N: First of all, I'm sorry for the extensive speech in this chapter. I feel like my speech to description ratio was terrible - but it was kinda necesarry in order to illuminate you on the first rung of the ladder that is Elena's past which, of course, is tied into Katherine and the Travellers, and the MF incident involving Alaric, Damon and Jenna.

I'd be really interested to hear your theories! I won't tell you if you're right or not, but I'd love to know your thoughts on just about anything! :-) I'm terribly sorry for my lack of updates and the way I seemed to literally drop off of the planet. I know I always have some lame half-ass excuse, but this time it's been more of a detrimental crossroads where I was hopelessly lost. Writing wasn't on my agenda, I just needed to know myself and be sure of some choices I was making. Hopefully, I'm out of the woods now and can continue to deliver to you!

Eternally grateful to those of you who have regularly checked back - it means so SO much!